Effects of 2D wedge design as a wayfinding facilitator in a 3D virtual environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate users' wayfinding task performance and subjective preference in a three‐dimensional (3D) virtual environment. The research variables are interaction mode (touch sensitive vs body movement modes), viewing perspective first‐person perspective (1PP) versus third‐person perspective (3PP)], and gender (man versus woman). Three difficult levels of tasks were conducted, i.e., A, A‐P, and A‐A types. The experiment is 2 × 2 × 2 between‐subject design. Participants needed to complete three wayfinding tasks and fill out subjective preference questionnaires regarding task fluency, satisfaction, system usability scale, and NASA Task Load Index (NASA‐TLX). Fifty‐six participants (28 men and 28 women) were invited using convenient sampling method. The results are as follows: (1) Participants adopting touch‐sensitive mode performed better than body movement mode. (2) Participants using touch‐sensitive mode could have better task fluency and higher SUS score, and with less effort and frustration. (3) Participants adopting 3PP had better wayfinding task performance than first‐person perspective. They also had higher system usability scale score and spent less effort for having wider viewing perspective. (4) The gender variable only showed significant effect in A‐P type of wayfinding task. Men performed better than women. It is concluded that adopting touch‐sensitive interaction and 3PP designs can better facilitate users' wayfinding tasks.